Editorial: Goodbye, summer vacation

Sunday, Aug. 26, 2007 | 1:04 a.m.

Book bag? Check. New school clothes? Check. Have enough lunch money? Check.

Filled with optimism that Monday marks the start of a great new school year?

Sure. Why not?

Heading back to school adds commotion to the family's morning routine and makes for some sluggish spots on the morning commutes of residents who must remember to slow down in school zones and watch for children on the roads.

This new academic year also brings the opening of six new elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school in Clark County. It certainly is not as many new schools as have been opened in previous years, but it still is an impressive number.

As of Friday, the Clark County School District still had 363 open teaching positions. But that doesn't mean students will be walking into classrooms that are void of teachers, a district spokesman said. More than two-thirds of those openings are for special assignments, such as teachers for art classes or libraries.

Of the open positions, 116 are for traditional stand-in-front-of-the-classroom teachers 23 of which are in elementary schools, and School District officials expected those to be filled by the time the bell rings Monday morning.

But many other challenges remain.

The School District still is short 77 secondary math and science teachers and 16 secondary English teachers.

A number of students will be attending class in portable classrooms because their schools are too crowded. A 10-year, $3.5 billion bond issue that voters passed in 1998 is about to expire, and School District officials say they will need to ask for another one next year for an estimated $10 billion to $13 billion.

And although Clark County schools achieved an 18 percent increase during the 2006-07 academic year in the number of schools that made "adequate yearly progress" on standardized tests, improvements must continue this year.

Such success depends not only on hard work by our students, but also on parents who are involved with their children's schools and the public's will to put enough money into the education system. For our public schools benefit everyone in a community, not only its children.